The Mind Trust’s Education Entrepreneur Fellowship

Sorry I haven’t posted the remaining AERA notes, but I’ve been trying to get things done for the Virtual School Symposium deadline and then I had my laptop stolen today, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some time to post my final AERA notes.  In the meantime, here’s something that I got in my inbox today…

We are pleased to announce that The Mind Trust (www.themindtrust.org) is now accepting applications for the second cohort of its Education Entrepreneur Fellowship (the first cohort will be announced in May 2008).  The Fellowship, a nationally unique incubator for transformative education ventures, offers promising education entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop and launch their break-the-mold education ventures and the support necessary for success.  Fellows receive a full-time annual salary of $90,000 for two years, benefits, and customized training.  Fellows who opt to live in Indianapolis will also get office space at The Mind Trust.

Interested candidates may apply online at www.themindtrust.org.  Statements of Intent are due September 5, 2008.  Fellowships will be awarded by December 1, 2008. 

Additional information on the Fellowship is attached.  You can also visit our website at www.themindtrust.org or contact us at info@themindtrust.org or 317-822-8102.   

About The Mind Trust:  The Mind Trust’s mission is to dramatically improve public education for underserved students by empowering education entrepreneurs to develop or expand transformative education initiatives.  The Mind Trust is currently in the process of selecting its first cohort of Education Entrepreneur Fellows.  The Mind Trust received 146 Statements of Intent from applicants with a rich array of experience and backgrounds from all over the country.  In addition to the Fellowship, The Mind Trust also has a Venture Fund which has invested $2,885,000 to bring Teach For America, The New Teacher Project and College Summit to Indianapolis, where The Mind Trust is based. 

———————————————————
David Harris
President and CEO
The Mind Trust
407 North Fulton Street, Suite 102
Indianapolis, IN  46202
Phone: 317-822-8102 ext. 100
Cellular: 317-450-8226
Fax: 317-822-8149
Email: dharris@themindtrust.org
———————————————————

About the Education Entrepreneur Fellowship

The Mind Trust’s Education Entrepreneur Fellowship is a nationally unique incubator for transformative education ventures. The Fellowship offers promising education entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop and launch their break- the-mold education ventures and the support necessary for success. Fellows receive two years of salary, benefits, coaching, customized training, a travel budget and more. With this support, fellows will be able to realize their visions and achieve extraordinary results for some of the nation’s most underserved students.

Fellowship ventures target underserved or disadvantaged populations with solutions that attack the root problems in the delivery of public education.  The Fellowship is for people who envision entirely new approaches to the challenges of public education, and possess the relentless drive necessary to exploit opportunities to fulfill their visions.  Fellows join a growing network of education entrepreneurs dedicated to forging dramatic change in public education.

The Mind Trust plans to select three highly capable people to join the second cohort of fellows.  It is expected that the second cohort of fellows will be selected in early December 2008.  Each fellow works with The Mind Trust staff to establish an appropriate start date.

Fellows are full-time employees of The Mind Trust throughout the Fellowship. Fellows receive a $90,000 annual salary during the Fellowship and a full benefits package that includes medical, dental, and retirement benefits. In addition, fellows receive stipends of $5,000 per year ($10,000 over two years) for travel and $5,000 per year ($10,000 over two years) for professional development.  The Fellowship is a full-time responsibility; fellows should not have additional employment, consulting contracts, or other professional responsibilities.  Fellows may live anywhere in the United States during the Fellowship, but will be required to participate in meetings with their cohort of fellows in Indianapolis at least quarterly.  In addition, Fellows must include Indianapolis as part of their initial growth plans.

Important Dates and Application Information

The Mind Trust will begin accepting Statements of Intent on March 31, 2008.  Statements of Intent are due on September 5, 2008.  Select applicants will be invited to submit Full Applications.  Full applications are due on October 17, 2008.  Statements of Intent and Full Applications are accepted only via The Mind Trust’s online application form.  Visit www.themindtrust.org for the application form and more information on the Education Entrepreneur Fellowship.  Fellowships for the second cohort will be awarded by December 1, 2008.

About The Mind Trust

The Mind Trust is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to dramatically improve public education for underserved students by empowering education entrepreneurs to develop or expand transformative education initiatives. To achieve its mission, The Mind Trust has two principal strategies: (1) a nationally unique Education Entrepreneur Fellowship that serves as an incubator for transformative education ventures; and (2) a Venture Fund to recruit to Indianapolis the nation’s most successful entrepreneurial education initiatives.

For more information about The Mind Trust and the Education Entrepreneur Fellowship, go to www.themindtrust.org.

VSS 2008 Presentation Proposals Due March 31

This reminder showed up in my inbox last night.

The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) Virtual School Symposium (VSS) Program Committee is still accepting proposals for presentations, and we wanted to send a gentle reminder to NACOL members that the March 31, 2008 deadline for submitting proposals is quickly approaching.

To download the directions and application, please visit: http://www.virtualschoolsymposium.org/rfp.php or go through NACOL’s website at http://www.nacol.org.

VSS brings together education leaders from national, state, district, charter, private and other online programs together at the industry’s leading event focused exclusively on K-12 online learning. The theme is: “Bridging the Gap through Online Learning.”

This year’s conference will take place October 26-28, 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona. The VSS conference provides important networking opportunities, access to expertise and analysis, trends, research and thought-provoking sessions for leaders looking to help shape the future of education. Registration is open.

Sincerely,
Susan Patrick
NACOL President & CEO

Virtual Schooling in the News

Beginning with the T.H.E. SmartClassroom.

: South Carolina Virtual Charter School To Open in August

South Carolina will open a new virtual public charter school this summer: the South Carolina Virtual Charter School (SCVCS). It was approved March 6 by the South Carolina Public Charter School District, South Carolina’s statewide charter school authorizing agency.

Click to continue:
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22306

Moving on to the regular Yahoo! News Alert for virtual school.

Free info session in Anderson to focus on S.C.’s first virtual charter school
Anderson Independent-Mail Sat, 22 Mar 2008 1:59 PM PDT
Meeting to take place April 21 at La Quinta Inn in Anderson

Students line up for virtual charter school
The Greenville News Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:18 PM PDT
The South Carolina Virtual Charter School already has 650 students registered for a lottery that will determine who gets in when the new online program opens in August.

Troy Dual Enrollment Virtual Learning Program
WTVY Dothan Wed, 26 Mar 2008 4:25 PM PDT
Students will soon have another way to earn college credits from virtually any high school.

School district open enrollment up Onalaska Community Life Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:47 AM PDT Eighty-nine students want to come in to Onalaska and 89 want out as part of the season’s school open enrollment. The requests approved Monday by the Onalaska Board of Education are up from last year as are requests by students to go to the so-called “virtual schools” rather than attend Onalaska schools

ECISD: Bell schedule stays the same
Odessa American Thu, 27 Mar 2008 2:28 PM PDT
Odessa High and Permian will remain on their current bell schedules for the 2008-’09 school year while officials continue to review expansions to the zero hours, summer school and virtual high school offerings, ECISD interim superintendent Hector Mendez said in a news conference Thursday.

Next the Yahoo! News Alert for cyber school.

Afflicted girl looking forward to Disney World trip
Williamsport Sun Gazette Mon, 24 Mar 2008 7:25 AM PDT
Lexi Opp spends most of her time taking medicine, visiting doctors and doing cyber school with her grandmother, mother or father.

Warrior Run superintendent lashes out at cyber schools
Williamsport Sun Gazette Mon, 24 Mar 2008 9:12 PM PDT
TURBOTVILLE — Warrior Run School District Superintendent Daniel B. Sheaffer took some time during Monday night’s school board meeting to lash out at cyber school costs.

New kind of schooling
Daily Courier Mon, 24 Mar 2008 9:12 PM PDT
Cyber charter schools offer an alternative to traditional physical schools and to home schooling. Parents enroll their children in one of several cyber schools licensed by the state at no cost. Local districts cover the cost of cyber school, with some reimbursement from the state, but not as much as districts receive for traditional students.

The rest of the funding story
Williamsport Sun Gazette Thu, 27 Mar 2008 9:15 PM PDT
In the article “Warrior Run School District Superintendent lashes out at cyber school,” Superintendent Sheaffer said cyber school costs the district 72 percent and that he gets reimbursed 28 percent. Before you jump on the bandwagon against cyber school, remember there are two sides to every story.

Finally, the Google News Alert for virtual school.

South Carolina Virtual Charter School To Open in August
T.H.E. Journal - Tustin,CA,USA
by Dave Nagel South Carolina will open a new virtual public charter school this summer: the South Carolina Virtual Charter School (SCVCS). …
See all stories on this topic

Online school showing potential
Baltimore Sun - United States
“She just needed something different to help her get through school.” That something is the Baltimore County Virtual Instruction Program, an online school …
See all stories on this topic

Free info session in Anderson to focus on SC’s first virtual …
Anderson Independent Mail (subscription) - Anderson,SC,USA
In a virtual school, instruction is conducted primarily on the Internet. According to the South Carolina Connections Academy Web site, students in the …
See all stories on this topic

Students could take high school online
Albert Lea Tribune - Albert Lea,MN,USA
Now education could be making a trend back to the home with virtual education available through the Insight School of Minnesota. …
See all stories on this topic

Panel urges 2nd language for students
The News Journal - Wilmington,DE,USA
… a student may earn the world language requirement by taking two years in high school or by taking two credits online at Delaware’s virtual school. …
See all stories on this topic

Published In: School Reform News
The Heartland Institute - Chicago,IL,USA
The Wisconsin State Senate has voted to limit the number of students allowed to enroll in the state’s 18 virtual charter schools after Gov. …
See all stories on this topic

 

 

NACOL Item - Online Learning Institute, Co-Sponsored By ISTE, SREB & ETLO

And a final one…

Join us for the Fourth Annual Online Learning Institute: Creating New Models for Learning! The 2008 Institute will be held in conjunction with the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) in San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday, July 2, from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. This event is jointly sponsored by EDC’s EdTech Leaders Online (ETLO), the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

Keynote speaker will be Rovy Branon, executive director of the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Co-Lab at the University of Wisconsin, who will discuss Emerging Technologies and Online Learning.

The Online Learning Institute offers:
• Networking with other practitioners from online professional development and virtual school programs and with leading national experts in online learning.
• Opportunities to share strategies and lessons about implementing successful online learning programs in states, districts, organizations, schools and universities.
• A choice of panel presentations, one on virtual schools and the other on online professional development, with specific resources and discussions for online specialists focused on each area.
• A series of roundtable discussions around key topics facilitated by state and organization leaders and practitioners, such as online options for leadership development, building virtual learning communities, development of high-quality and dynamic online content, effective facilitation strategies for online professional development courses, instructional practices for virtual school students, open source and commercial course management systems, identifying and engaging online learning stakeholders, incorporating Web 2.0 technologies, using data to improve programs and practices, addressing learning gaps through targeted OPD programs, starting and scaling up virtual programs, researching and evaluating online programs.

Breakfast and lunch are included, providing additional networking opportunities for participants.

Details:
Date and Location: Wednesday, July 2nd 8:00 am – 3:00 pm — Grand Hyatt Hotel
Registration fee: $125.00 - includes all panels, presentations, and round tables as well as breakfast and lunch.
Early Bird Deadline: Register before May 1, 2008, to receive the early bird special rate of $99.00

For more information, please contact Leinda Peterman at LPeterman@edc.org or Barbara Treacy at btreacy@edc.org. To register online, go to http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/program/search_results_details.php?sessionid=42155680&selection_id=42370255&rownumber=1&max=1&gopage.
Please join us for this exciting event!

NACOL Item - Virtual Virginia On NPR This Morning

A second one…

INNOVATIVE TRENDS IN HIGH SCHOOL
Public Schools Expand Curriculum Online
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p…9070946&sc=emaf

(You can listen as well at the link above)

by Larry Abramson

Morning Edition, March 26, 2008 · When senior Zack Jackson wanted to take a class in mythology, he wasn’t out of luck just because his small high school in rural Virginia didn’t offer it. Instead, he headed online.

The course comes courtesy of Virtual Virginia, a state program that offers dozens of online classes to middle and high school students. The program allows children to take classes that aren’t offered at their schools. Nationwide, programs like Virtual Virginia help hundreds of thousands of students take the kinds of unusual courses that make colleges sit up and take notice.

Most of the 3,000 students in the Virtual Virginia program enroll in online advanced placement courses. And thanks to the program, Zack’s school, Rappahannock County High, can offer more AP classes, allowing it to compete with local private schools, which often use AP courses as a selling point.

Principal Robyn Puryear says students have to be self-directed to succeed in an online class. Since online courses are self-paced, there’s a temptation to procrastinate — and that leads to trouble.

“Life interferes. Sports interfere. Just regular social life interferes, because they could put it off until the evening. But in the evening they may not be free,” Puryear says.

Connecting Online

In an apartment in Alexandria, Va., online instructor Susan Cox is teaching a subject she has long wanted to teach: Mandarin Chinese. Cox has a master’s degree in Chinese and literature, but she could not find a position in her field at a regular school. So when Virtual Virginia offered her a job teaching Chinese online, she jumped at the chance.

Cox meets occasionally with her students through live online sessions. Students enrolled from around the state plug headsets into their computers and gather for the classes. A lot of the teacher’s work is conducted through e-mail and phone calls. Students can e-mail videos of themselves to Cox — or Kong Liaoshi, as she’s known to her students.

And that’s often where she gets the warm feeling she used to get from classroom interaction.

“Oh, this is interesting!” she says, calling up a video from one particularly resourceful student originally from Barbados. “She went and found on the Internet … how to say, ‘I’m from Barbados,’” Cox says. Cox plays a video of the student speaking Mandarin. She grins when she hears that the girl’s “tones” are correct.

Cox taught history in a school until last fall. She’s delighted to be teaching a subject she loves, but she says she did think long and hard about giving up her classroom.

“I’m a very social person. I did a lot of stuff at my school,” Cox says. “And I love the kids.”

Cox says she now feels the same connection to her online students. She says she can tell from their e-mails and their phone calls when they’re distracted by personal problems and when they need special attention.

Online education for high school students is gaining popularity, but it may not realize one of the original promises of distance education: saving money. The start-up costs can be substantial, and it’s tough to compare the costs of a virtual school with those of a brick-and-mortar one.

Online educators say the real payoff is that these virtual schools can help liven up traditional schools.

NACOL Item - Oversight & Management of Online Programs, Seeking Ideas and Examples

Well, I am just back from AERA and I’ll post some comments on a few sessions and some other AERA-related topics tomorrow.  In the meantime, here are some items from the NACOL forums.

Throughout 2008 NACOL will be publishing a six-part white paper series on “Promising Practices in Online Learning.” An upcoming topic in this series will cover oversight and management of online programs. The success of growing online programs depends in large part on the people, systems, and evaluation practices established to insure quality in all aspects of program operations. This paper looks at the complexity and operational challenges faced by online programs and the innovative solutions developed to address those challenges.

We would appreciate any ideas and examples you have on program oversight and management, including but not limited to the following questions.

• What are the most important aspects of student support, and what new strategies are being implemented to enhance student support?
• What are your greatest challenges in teacher evaluation and management? How does your program address issues of recruiting, training and professional development, and the evaluation of online teachers?
• As the online curriculum expands, how does your program approach both new course development and the improvement of existing online courses?

We welcome your ideas and examples, posted to this forum or by email to Butch Gemin and John Watson and at rgemin@evergreenassoc.com and johnw@evergreenassoc.com.

As I’ve mentioned before with this series, if you have something that would be useful to John please send it his way.

He’s Graduating, And Didn’t Spend A Day In Class

This was posted to the NACOL forums earlier today.

He’s graduating, and didn’t spend a day in class
First four-year Virtual High School student ‘wonderful ambassador’
By Emily Richmond
Tue, Mar 25, 2008
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/25/he…pend-day-class/

Audio Clip
Matt Sosa advises students on what to think about before deciding to commit to virtual school.

Audio Clip
Sosa discusses the differences in how he manages his time compared to students that attend traditional high school.

When 18-year-old Matt Sosa graduates this spring, he will do so without having attended even one class at a bricks-and-mortar high school.

Instead, he’s spent the past four years downloading his teachers’ lectures onto his home computer, participating in group discussions via live chat rooms and e-mailing his homework. Sosa will be the first graduate of the Clark County School District’s Virtual High School to complete grades 9-12 through the program.

Virtual learning isn’t for every student, Sosa said.

“You may spend less time in class, but it takes a lot more dedication,” Sosa said. “You can fall behind so quickly. You don’t have a teacher there every day telling you to get stuff done. It takes a certain level of self-discipline.”

The School District has offered “distance education” classes since 1998. For some students, it’s a way to take a specialized class that isn’t offered at their home high school, such as Advanced Placement German. For others, the program gives them a chance to catch up on missing academic credits to graduate on time.

The district launched its Virtual High School in 2004, offering students a chance to enroll full time rather than for just a class or two. The first diplomas were handed out the following spring.

When Sosa signed up, he figured it would be a short-term solution, a way to keep up with his classes while recovering from leg surgery.

When he was a sixth grade honor student at Sig Rogich Middle School, he had to have a tumor the size of his fist removed from his leg.

Surgeons inserted metal pins and plates to hold his femur in place while it healed and grew. Sosa was told he would need another operation in about two years to remove the metal. His mother worried about him attending an overcrowded high school, where jostling crowds could have caused a disastrous injury.

When they discovered the Virtual High School had just “opened its doors,” Sosa “was just in awe” that the option was available, he said. “I thought I would have to go to a regular high school and tough it out.”

He ended up staying in the program because he concluded it was the best fit for his learning style. “If you’re a morning person, you can get your work done then,” he said. “If you’re a night owl like me, you can do it late. It’s all up to you.”

On most mornings, he is up by 10 a.m. He starts his day by surfing the Web and catching up on the news. About noon he logs on to the school’s interactive Web site and checks his homework. Between 2 and 6 p.m. he attends the “instructional support” sessions offered by his teachers, which combine online lectures with a chance to ask questions. The sessions are recorded, and students can go back and replay them at any time. In the evening he makes dinner for his family, and then gets back online to work on his assignments or chat with friends. Bedtime is usually about 2 a.m.

• • •

Virtual High School has about 650 part-time students and 150 full-time students, including the 30 seniors expected to graduate this year. The program is popular with students for whom the traditional high school schedule is problematic, including elite athletes, professional actors and teen parents.

“Our students can travel anywhere and keep up with their studies,” said Essington Wade, Virtual High School’s principal. “We are open 24/7.”

Although Virtual High may not be well-known, it’s not without competition.

Odyssey Charter School, sponsored by the Clark County School Board in 1999, currently has about 1,400 students enrolled in grades K-12. Teachers visit Odyssey’s K-7 students at home once a week, while students in grades 8-12 are required to attend weekly classes on campus.

Two state-sponsored virtual charter schools, Nevada Connections Academy and Nevada Virtual Academy, opened in August. Both have contracted with out-of-state commercial education companies for online curricula and services. Buoyed by aggressive marketing campaigns, enrollment at both schools quickly reached capacity. Students are provided with most supplies, including home computers and microscopes for science projects.

Virtual High lacks the funds to compete with the newcomers when it comes to promotion. But Wade said he’s doing what he can to raise the program’s profile. He points to Virtual High students’ strong academic performance on standardized tests and the solid pass rate on the high school proficiency exam.

He’s hoping to see more applicants for the fall semester. Students interested in enrolling full time are interviewed and their academic records are reviewed. Poor attendance histories are considered red flags, but even those students may be admitted for a probationary period because the school was intended to help students who haven’t flourished in the traditional environment.

In the past year, in response to requests from parents, Wade has increased the level of interaction between teachers and students to better monitor progress and to respond more quickly when the students fall behind.

Sosa is the first to admit there have been a few rocky periods in his academic career, when procrastination won out over diligence. But he buckled down and carries a 3.4 grade-point average.

“There were some struggles, and we all worked hard to get him back on track,” Wade said. “Matt is a wonderful ambassador for us.”

Sosa knows about a dozen of his virtual classmates, but talks regularly with only a few of them. Virtual High students are eligible to participate in activities at their home high schools, and Sosa plays cello in Sierra Vista’s orchestra. That’s been an important social network for Sosa, who admits that virtual learning can get a little lonely.

The isolation “is one of the main issues facing Virtual High School,” Sosa said. “The Student Council is working on it.”

Is he on the Student Council?

“I am the Student Council,” Sosa says, then laughs.

His academic course load is ambitious this year. He’s taking honors American literature as well as Advanced Placement biology, and has already passed the Advanced Placement exams for English composition and economics.

Perhaps most important, Virtual High School has prepared him well for college, he said.

Sosa scored a 33 out of a possible 36 on his college entrance exam, has been accepted by UNLV and is planning on a career in medicine.

He says he doesn’t have any regrets about skipping the traditional high school experience. The glimpse he gets attending orchestra practice is enough for him.

Sometimes when he passes a classroom, he sees students slumped in their seats, passing notes and goofing off.

“You’re there to learn,” Sosa said. “Why waste your time and the teacher’s time like that?”

Note that I attended three sessions dealing with virtual schooling today, including my own. I’ll post about them tomorrow as it is almost midnight now.

AERA Presentations - Barbour & Mulcahy / Roblyer, Davis, Mills, Marshall & Pape

Well, there were two sessions dealing with virtual schooling today. The first was my one of my own sessions:

Student Performance in Virtual Schooling: Looking Beyond the Numbers

Schedule Information: Scheduled Time: Mon, Mar 24 - 12:00pm - 1:30pm Building/Room: Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers / Madison Suite 5, 5th Floor In Session: Revisiting a Rural Sense of Place Authors: *Dennis M. Mulcahy (Memorial University - Newfoundland) *Michael Kristopher Barbour (Wayne State University) Abstract: Seven years ago the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation began a virtual high school within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Designed primarily to provide courses in specialized areas to students in rural areas, where schools have difficulty in attracting these teachers. However, there is concern that the opportunities provided by this virtual school are “second rate”. The purpose of the study is to examine the student achievement in standardized public exams and final course scores in the province between different delivery models, geographic location and subject area to determine whether or not students are succeeding in the virtual high school environment at the same rate as their classroom counterparts.

As this was my session, I won’t comment on it. I was planning to record it, but I forgot to turn on my iPod - not the first time I’ve done that.

Research-Based Procedures to Predict and Promote Success in Virtual School Students

Schedule Information:

Scheduled Time: Mon, Mar 24 - 4:05pm - 6:05pm Building/Room: Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers / Madison Suite 5, 5th Floor In Session: Educational Technology Use for Learning, But Outside of the School: Tools, Findings, Strategies

Authors:

*Margaret D. Roblyer (The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga) *Lloyd Davis (The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga) *Steven C. Mills (University Center of Southern Oklahoma) Jon C. Marshall (Marshall Consulting) Elizabeth R. Pape (VHS, Inc.)

Abstract:

Past research indicates that failure and dropout rates in distance courses tend to be significantly higher than those in traditional classrooms. A study was designed to develop and test a model for predicting failure and promoting success in virtual school environments based on a combination of learner and environmental characteristics gleaned from past research. The relationship between these factors and successful course completion during one semester at a large (N=4,100) virtual school was measured. Findings yielded a model that can discriminate between successful and unsuccessful online school students and is especially effective at identifying those likely to succeed. Based on these results, procedures are outlined to help virtual schools use this model to promote success in online courses

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make this session either - as my wife got us tickets to go see David Letterman.  I’ll see Dr. Roblyer at her session tomorrow afternoon and we can chat about this session then too.  Two more virtual school sessions tomorrow, another one that I’m involved in and another one by Dr. Roblyer.

VHS Practitioners Conference for Practitioners - Seeking Feedback from NACOL Members

Okay, this was posted in the NACOl forums but I think its okay to extend the feedback beyond the membership of NACOL.

Hi all -

On April 9 - 11, 2008 Virtual High School Global Consortium (VHS, Inc) will be sponsoring a conference for, and by, online practitioners. The idea of the gathering is to support online teachers by presenting sessions and workshops tailored specifically to their needs.

One of the sessions is a workshop entitled “New teacher Boot Camp.”

We want to be able to plan for the types of questions that might arise and would like to hear from NACOL members. When you were a “new” online teacher what issues or problems did you encounter? Which ones were you prepared for and which ones took you completely by surprise? If you could name just one thing that would have better prepared you for your role as a new online teacher what would it have been?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from my esteemed fellow NACOL members.

Dr. Donna E. Scribner
Chief Learning Officer
Virtual High School Global Consortium (VHS, Inc.)

BTW, I’m in New York at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (see
Virtual School Presentations at AERA 2008).  I’ll try and post some summaries of the virtual school sessions I attend while I’m here (and anything else of interest that comes up).

ADETA - March 2008 issue of The Distance eNewsletter

From my inbox.

Sent by Georgina Schurman from ADETA.

If you don’t wish to receive such e-mails, you can change your account settings.

The March edition of “The Distance” eNewsletter is up under Newsletters on the ADETA website http://adeta.org or you can view it by clicking The Distance March 2008.

The issue contains:

- Article on helping students remember more

- President’s Message with info on ADETA AGM

- Member blogs

- Professional development events

Georgina Schurman

The Distance eNewsletter editor

georginas@shaw.ca

Note, early tomorrow morning I leave for AERA. I’ll try and blog about the virtual school sessions that I am able to attend while I am there, but that will depend on the reliability of both the wireless and my own remembering to do it.